Working on a Change Gang
Clarence Fisher wrote a post called Thinking about Change in which he shared a critical thinking tool for problem solving. The idea came from a book called The Medici Effect. It’s a simple idea, which makes it versatile and applicable to any number of problem situations.
Clarence posted an example of a grid that would apply to classroom change.
Anyone who has taught for even a short time knows that schools are very resistant to systemic change. As Clarence pointed out, one of the obstacles to change is that we have a hard time escaping our assumptions about how things are, which interferes with imagining how things might be otherwise. The grid allows us to lay out our assumptions in a neat and tidy list, and then negate them in a second column. There is a third column, not shown, in which a positive description of the new - changed - condition is generated. That’s an important column.
I thought this grid was a great learning tool, and made a note to remember it for a future classroom need.
Clarence supplied an opportunity to put the tool to work for teachers with his next post in which he announced the development of The Classroom Change Wiki. This is a great idea, and I urge anyone who cares to see something new happen for education to participate in this project. I made an edit to the Assumptions about Classrooms page.
I’m still locked in the problem-describing mindset. Over the last few years I’ve successfully undermined most of my beliefs about schooling, and haven’t had a model for a replacement. One of the problems with many inspirational success stories that I’ve read is that they don’t seem to translate well into practice. I think that’s because a success story in one place is rooted in the social context of that particular place, which is invariably different than MY place. The Medici Grid, I hope, could help to supply a general description based on general principles rather than specific practices, so that we might see how to make classroom change happen in a broad range of contexts.
If you’ve never participated on a wiki before, they can be a lot of fun. All you have to do is click the Edit tab for the page you want to write on, and supply the password, which is right on the front page of the wiki.
I want to work toward that third column! It’s a roadmap for change. The country is uncharted.
Teacher in Development :: Going Bedouin: What Others are Saying :: May :: 2006 wrote,
[...] Then there’s Doug Noon over at Borderland. He recently posted about Working on a Change Gang. [...]
Link | May 29th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Brian Crosby wrote,
Doug - I agree that schools are very resistant to systemic change, however I believe parents and society in general are even more resistant to systemic change in schools. “Change is a great idea, those other schools really need to change, they’re horrible, but the school my children go to seems to be doing a good job.” Besides how can I tell if my child is doing well if things aren’t being done pretty much the same way they were when I went to school? If you make changes you’re “dumbing down” the schools so nobody knows what you are doing. I think this is perhaps the biggest obstacle we have to overcome.
Brian
Link | May 29th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Doug wrote,
Right on the mark. They either love you or they’re completely confused.
“Please send some more worksheets home. We’ll work with him. And what’s with these rubric things, anyway?”
Link | May 29th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Marco Polo wrote,
“Schools are resistant to change”, because “those” schools are filled with dinosaurs and ostriches. I think there’s more to it than that (courtesy of Gatto!). Schools are organized (deliberately?) so that change is difficult, particularly in the US from what I read. It’s not just that the people in schools are resistant to change, it’s more that any kind of change in which so many stakeholders have a, erm, stake, is extraordinarly difficult because a) you have to get agreement or consensus from so many different people, and b) so many of those people never meet or talk to each other. A further reason is caution (or timidity, take your pick): there are serious consequences for any kind of change. The changes suggested may make perfect pedagogic and psychological sense, but be rejected because parents, teachers and other stakeholders are concerned that the changes may make the school appear “wacky”, and therefore seriously impact the employment chances of students who attend. “Doc” (the story of Dennis Littky’s attempts to change a failing school) is a fascinating and instructive account of the different and various stakeholder positions when it comes to changing a school.
Link | May 30th, 2006 at 4:43 am
Brian Crosby wrote,
“… Doug over at Borderland picked up on a post by Clarence Fisher about a “grid” that would apply to classroom change. I threw in my response and Doug replied, but the gem is Marco Polo’s reply. I think he frames the issue magnificently …”
http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=85
Link | May 30th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Sarah Puglisi wrote,
Once I thought about becoming Carl Rodgers, then I read and listened to Maslow and his genius around teachers as “artists” , for a bit Eisner so great in that vein, that seemed to provide rich food for my thought as designer of educational environment. Then constructavist, social justice pieces fell through my open doors and connected me to more rich food for thought about school reform and design..Every day and night brought insights into the leading issues in education from gender equity, to 2nd language instruction, to the role of the arts and the factors of race, affluence, technological learning. I worked in systems underfunded with every resource to meet educational needs for kids in poverty. Our biggest impoverishment was in terms of having those with education, concept, vision….because it was poorly paid, often isilatory and a very hard way to go about addressing societies issues. It’s called “The FrontLine.”
You can read James Herndon both young and old on this.
But with the passage of NCLB and the privitazation and destruction of schools in areas of poverty called “improvement” I finally met insanity in its working garb. Here now they began friendly fire on the troops on the front lines and now teacher is target , and I’m afraid we are going down by our own. Sacrificed in order to radically alter in a new and very fundamentally undemocratic and dangerous way any notion of education in any form for those who lack affluence.I sort of see it as taking Carl Rogers and essentially sucker punching him to the floor and holding the place hostage. Now I cannot talk to you or others about these “change” or “transformative” things in terms of my praxis-I’m hamstrung into scripts that won’t /don’t work by those either following orders or making fantasic salaries and commision fees in the “restructure”. I am witnessing the poor getting treated to something like a public looting. Here reading “1984″ really is instructive. And now I realize the truth . It is in the interest of capitalistic greed and political facilitation the young really are valueless, and eaten.
If at the core of any “change”, anything you do, if a central construct is not doing good work and doing it with an eye to preserve the best of what you do and to build healthier ways to do whatever you do and key examination of our constructs, if we cannot at the end of the day think of this ed system as a way to help those who need it most, if monies are used to construct methods to loot the children of the public funds, well….I’m not able to work anymore to construct meaning in any way. It’s over for me, really. I’m in a fascist state. And don’t kid yourself about where that might go. Try to get medical care to your loved one in the present medical climate on a rare condition and see thought to having good medical systems once privitazation has done it’s work-America can’t even take care of its children…..in terms of health.
And I long for times when I felt I had an internal dialog with myself about methodologies and praxis, what changes, what works(and by way of that many things in many constructs). Now I’m an automaton. We in the settings where the might NCLB is destroying hope and futures. We need advocates, avocacy, rights to think, be heard, to come to the table with issues like how to educate 2nd language poor children who Lou Dobbs wants to point to the Border. We need to connect and explain what awful curriculum design we are forced to deal with, how poorly it fits our kids and we need help to develop our thinking and voice. Because we are literally drowning in a sea of political, legislated destruction of dream…..and the biggest heartache is knowing that as long as someone else gets theres , for their own child, then that’s okay…watching that define education though these times is unbelievably difficult.
Link | September 19th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Doug wrote,
Sarah, this is an absolutely inspired piece. I know that the “inspiration” comes from grief, frustration, anger, and the intimate knowledge of heart-felt need. I hear it loudly and clearly. Jonathan Kozol’s Shame of the Nation vividly described things that you might not find surprising. Your voice is powerful, and full of passion.
Maybe there’s another venue besides the classroom for some of us when the school doors close. I’ve been thinking about alternatives.
Link | September 19th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Sarah Puglisi wrote,
hi,
yeah, me too.
I’m writing. Also thinking of drawing. I have a hard thing to write this weekend-i’ll get it to you just by way of a hello…i just read about your classroom via appropriateness…spent all day harranging and wanted to simply say to myself “step back” I sounded ridiculous but I feel a lot of pressure at the site..
I’m really enjoying your blog. You write so well. Your kids are lucky to have you.
Let’s form a place where leading is listening and control is the least of it where enabling another feels better than bowing for our performance, no?
Sarah
Link | September 22nd, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Doug wrote,
Sarah,
I don’t want to embarrass you, but I’ve started a Puglisi file in my bookmarks (saved from here and there - a lot of there). I saw your comment on Schools Matter that echoed my thinking. Your statement, “I’m ashamed really that this country could unlease this on our children and doubly ashamed I am forced into it’s implementation,” is very much about the reason that I’m even doing this writing.
I’m working out problems of conscience here. Hannah Arendt wrote about the cultural/moral climate in Nazi Germany, and I’ve been reading her work. It helps to understand that maybe these dilemmas aren’t new. It’s discouraging, too, but maybe this is an opportunity for some old-fashioned resistance. Thank you for your encouragement.
Link | September 22nd, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Sarah Puglisi wrote,
Have you read Thomas Wolfe’s last book? It is exactly like those days. We are in times that look for a goat. It may be the illegal immigrant. I’m not sure,i know if you can hurt your children and the most vulnerable without flinching you have lost your humanity. Go in Mart Luther King hospital in South Central and tell me we aren’t capable of forgetting the children….it’s wrenching me. But what I see happening to the children in this public ed takeover-their last hope is ed.- is nothing short of a crime of conscious and I’m not going down without calling out to this world.My message is in my bottle. I’m calling out to the world…. I really need help to refine my thinking and to center myself. I’m trying to get ready to write, debate, talk because I am forced now to advocate. I so appreceiate your writing. Thank you. It is assisting me in what I’m doing. It matters and children are worth it. Thanks…
Link | September 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm